Financial Statement Presentation

The objective of the financial statement presentation project is to establish a global standard that will guide the organisation and presentation of information in the financial statements. The boards’ goal is to improve the usefulness of the financial information provided in an entity’s financial statements to assist management to better communicate its financial information to the users of its financial statements, and to help users in their decision-making. This is a joint project between the IASB and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).

Project set-up

The IASB is conducting the project in three main phases:

Phases

Status

Phase A: IAS 1 Presentation of Financial statements (completed)

This phase addressed a complete set of financial statements and requirements to present comparative information.
The IASB issued a revised version of IAS 1 in September 2007. Click here for more information.
The FASB decided to consider Phases A and B together.

Develops a common definition of discontinued operations and requires common disclosures related to disposals of components of an entity.

An exposure draft was published in September 2008 and was open for comment until January 2009. Click here for more information.

On June 24 2010 the boards jointly issued a progress report, which stated that they have decided to align the project timetable with the main financial statement presentation project. The boards plan to publish in the first quarter of 2011 an exposure draft of a converged definition of discontinued operations and related disclosures. Click here for more information.

This phase will consider the presentation and display of interim financial information in US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The IASB may also reconsider the requirements in IAS 34 Interim Financial Reporting.